Dhaka, Feb 6 (PTI) At least 50 activists of the ultra-right Inqilab Mancha were injured on Friday in a clash with police in Bangladesh when they tried to defy a ban during a protest demanding immediate justice over the killing of their leader Sharif Osman Hadi last year.
Dhaka police used batons, sound grenades and water cannon as the protestors tried to break through security barricades in front of interim government chief Muhammad Yunus’ official Jamuna residence, defying an earlier announced ban on rallies there.
Hadi, a front-line activist of the violent 2024 student-led street protest dubbed July Uprising that toppled then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government, was a candidate in the February 12 parliamentary polls.
He was shot in the capital on December 12 while electioneering and later succumbed to his injuries.
Witnesses said police in riot gear turned tough as the protestors tried to break through security barricades in front of Jamuna from a nearby sit-in demonstration, defying the earlier announced ban on rallies adjacent to Jamuna.
According to newspaper reports, the police action left more than 50 protestors, including Inqilab Mancha member-secretary Abdullah Al Zaber, wounded.
In protest against the police action, activists of the right-wing cultural group blocked a nearby major intersection in the capital’s central Shahbagh area, bringing traffic to a standstill.
Dhaka metropolitan police, in a statement, said the protesters were dispersed in a “fully lawful” manner and no lethal weapons or gunfire were used for it.
After the clash, Yunus’ office binned reports of “excessive use of force” against the protestors.
“According to information received from doctors at the emergency department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, 23 people, including Inqilab Mancha secretary-general Abdullah Al Zaber, received treatment there. But the doctors confirmed that none of them received bullet wounds,” the government statement said.
The Inqilab Mancha’s attempt to break through the barricades of Jamuna came despite an announcement by Yunus’ office earlier on Thursday that it would propose a UN investigation into Hadi’s murder.
Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam said the government would ask the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to take charge of the inquiry to ensure full impartiality and justice.
In its statement following the clashes, Yunus’ office reiterated that the interim government was “deeply reviewing the legal aspects” of the UN investigation and would send a letter to the concerned UN agency on February 8.
The government earlier observed a day of mourning for “martyr” Hadi, and law adviser Asif Nazrul said the murder case would be transferred to a fast-track tribunal under the Speedy Trial Tribunal Act that stipulates trials to be completed within 90 days once the police report is submitted.
The Jamuna is guarded by army troops equipped with guns and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) alongside police.
As an extra precaution against escalating tensions, the government on Friday called out six platoons or nearly 180 paramilitary Border Guard (BGB) soldiers to enforce a security vigil.
Hours after Hadi’s death in December, his supporters set alight the offices of two mass circulation newspapers Daily Star and Prothom Alo as well as the over half-century-old progressive cultural groups Chayanat and Udichi Shilpi Goshthi in the capital. They also lynched a Hindu factory worker in central Mymensingh. Last month, Hadi’s brother Omar Hadi told a protest rally that a section within the interim government plotted the killing to derail the February 12 polls.
“Those who are in power when Osman Hadi was killed, you won’t be able to evade the responsibility,” Omar had said.
The government allocated Taka 2 crore (USD 20 million) to support Hadi’s family, and appointed his elder brother Abu Bakar Siddiq as a second secretary at the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Birmingham, UK. PTI AR GRS GRS GRS
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